


Benign Gestures

by aruarudayo



Series: Seen This Before [7]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: John is equally sweet and a jerk, M/M, identity crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-08-22
Packaged: 2018-02-14 05:17:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2179362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aruarudayo/pseuds/aruarudayo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Deaths Final<br/>Davesprite comes to terms that he'll never see the John from his timeline ever again - because of that one flash we never speak of - and that makes it even more important for him that his relationship with this John is worked through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Benign Gestures

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from paual@dreamwidth

_“Dave!”_

At first, it was a nice gesture.

_“Hey, Strider!”_

Then it started feeling all sorts of wrong.

_“Stop calling me that, John.”_

Eventually, you got fed up with it.

_“Calling you what?”_

Honestly though, it’s not entirely unwanted.

_“That name.”_

But he doesn’t think of you as you.

_“What name?”_

He thinks of you as him.

 

John is all kinds of stupid, but not stupid enough to get himself killed on the whims of some troll. That’s what you figure when you nonchalantly let him do whatever the fuck he wants in his session. 

You never hear from him again after that.

When you and Rose realize that something is wrong, you want to make it right. You want John back right then, right now, but you know that isn’t a good idea. You survived whatever dumbass move John made, so you’d better make the most of it, even if you’ll never amount to anything in this session. Climbing the echeladder is meaningless, collecting grist is too, since you know that, even when you reverse, you could easily just torrent the stuff, among other things.

You bide your time until you really can’t take it anymore; between wanting your friends back and wanting to punt this goddamn mistake of a sprite into the next universe, you’re ready to explode. 

But what’s waiting for you isn’t what you expect. You’re forced through hoops of colors and “Real” versus “Unreal” Dave and you actually don’t deserve this at all. You’re the real Dave and so is this timeline’s Dave. 

Still, it’s better than not having your friend at all.

It takes until you’re on the ship and dealing with John on a regular basis that you realize that none of those points are entirely true. For one thing, you’re the real Dave just like this timeline’s Dave, but you’re not John’s Dave, so you might as well not be real to him. Similarly, John isn’t your friend; he’s “Real” Dave’s friend. 

Your friend is gone.

It’s at that point that it feels like it was all a waste of time. You saved his life, but what other point does your existence have then? There isn’t space for two Daves in this universe.

Of course, without the other one around, he starts calling you Dave. Just Dave. 

You don’t want to be Just Dave anymore.

 

_“Oh, ‘Dave’? But isn’t that your name? You’re Dave.”_

_“No, I’m not.”_


End file.
